A conventional technique to accelerate and enhance plant growth indoors is to place the plant in a growth enclosure in which the leaves of the plant are exposed to a warm, often humid atmosphere that has an enhanced CO2 content, typically on the order of from about 1000 ppm to 1500 ppm CO2. The plants are also irradiated with grow lamps having a spectral output selected for the particular plant species. The leaves process the CO2 and produce O2. The leaf zone is continuously monitored and additional CO2 is introduced to maintain the desired excess CO2 level. Of course, there are typically vent systems to permit exchanges of the atmosphere to keep the O2 level from building up. Such enclosures typically operate at a positive CO2 pressure in the leaf zone.
However, +CO2 pressurized systems suffer from the problem of infiltration of CO2 into the root zone. This is exacerbated by hydroponic or aeroponic systems in which nutrient fluid is periodically introduced into a root container, and thereafter flushed. The flushing produces a vacuum effect which draws in CO2 from the leaf zone in cases of CO2-overpressure systems. The result is to effectively “poison” the root zone, as roots require O2 for best growth and health.
To overcome this problem it has been proposed to oxygenate the water or water-based nutrient solutions that are provided to the root zone. While this may provide some help, since best practices in this field are to only periodically replenish (or flood) and flush the root container with nutrient solutions, such periodic flood/flush cycle leaves the vast majority of the plant growth period with roots exposed to the infiltrating CO2 from the overpressure CO2 leaf zone above.
Accordingly, there is a long-felt, but unmet need in this field for an apparatus system and method for maintaining the root zone at all times with normal or above O2 content, preferably at an overpressure, and to isolate the leaf zone from the root zone, preferably at the plant's crown structure where the stem transitions into roots, in order to prevent infiltration of CO2 from the overpressure leaf zone into the root zone.